bluegrass
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« on: July 15, 2007, 07:38:05 PM » |
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I haven't ever grafted, but am thinking I will start. I have a colony from a cut out that has five med. brood boxes. I decided to raise all my queens off of it this year. I saw the queen the day I did the cutout this past spring. I caught and caged her and a few days later removed the cage from the hive. She lays really well and they draw out frames faster than any of my other hives. I tried seperating every box and going through it, but there are so many bees that all I end up with is bees all over the outside of each box as I go through and am unable to find the queen.
I am thinking that I am going to forget about finding the queen and just pull frames and try grafting fresh hatched brood. So what I do know is that I can pull swarm cells and use the royal jelly to prime my cells. Can I dilute the royal jelly and what do I dilute it with?
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Sugarbush Bees
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TwT
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« Reply #1 on: July 16, 2007, 05:28:14 AM » |
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you can delute it with water but slightly, if you was to buy royal jelly 1/2 - 1/2 works but dont think so out of a cell, I prefer dry cell grafting, you get some royal jelly from the cell when you graft anyway, just feed when you graft whether there is a flow going or not.
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« Last Edit: July 18, 2007, 06:04:42 AM by TwT »
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THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!
Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic
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bluegrass
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« Reply #2 on: July 16, 2007, 05:40:03 AM » |
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I looked around and the only place I have seen it for sale is the health food store.....will this food grade processed royal jelly work? Its kinda expensive, like 40.00 for an ounce.
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TwT
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« Reply #3 on: July 16, 2007, 05:49:38 AM » |
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THAT's ME TO THE LEFT JUST 5 YEARS FROM NOW!!!!!!!!
Never be afraid to try something new.
Amateurs built the ark,
Professionals built the Titanic
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peggjam
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« Reply #4 on: July 17, 2007, 08:40:05 AM » |
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I dry graft all my cells. I havn't found it nessarcery to prime the cells. But if you really want to, you could pull some rj out of cells that have older larva in them, and use that.  |
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Michael Bush
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« Reply #5 on: July 17, 2007, 07:02:22 PM » |
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I've tried priming and not. I see no difference. I would not bother. Jay Smith by Better Queens had come to the same conclusion.
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bluegrass
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« Reply #6 on: July 18, 2007, 05:52:32 AM » |
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So I shouldn't bother priming.....Less steps is good. I think I remember Robin mentioning a class on grafting, I should look into taking, but in the mean time I plan on just winging it  My plan is to go through the hive and pull two frame of eggs, moving them to the top box so I can watch for them to hatch and then grafting out of them.....Good or bad Idea? I really don't want to shake down this whole hive to find the queen.....I have harrassed them enough in the past two weeks looking for her and I don't want to risk it anymore. |
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Sugarbush Bees
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Michael Bush
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« Reply #7 on: July 18, 2007, 06:41:44 AM » |
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smallswarm
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« Reply #8 on: July 23, 2007, 07:17:45 AM » |
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Mr. Bush, I read Better Queens on your site. You have been using Smith's method with your feral stock, right? It makes good sense to cut out a strip of some brand new comb for the bees to form queen cells, but I wasn't able to understand exactly how you attach the new comb with eggs to the top bar? How do you do it on your farm? Thanks.
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Michael Bush
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« Reply #9 on: July 24, 2007, 08:16:29 PM » |
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>Mr. Bush, I read Better Queens on your site. You have been using Smith's method with your feral stock, right? Not really. > It makes good sense to cut out a strip of some brand new comb for the bees to form queen cells, but I wasn't able to understand exactly how you attach the new comb with eggs to the top bar? Smith attached it with some melted beeswax. > How do you do it on your farm? Mostly I use a Jenter box and transfer the larvae. Sometimes I graft when the queen didn't lay in the box to my satisfaction or I didn't get the chance to confine her. I have also done the Hopkins method, which doesn't require cutting the comb into strips: http://www.bushfarms.com/beesqueenrearing.htm |
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Mici
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« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2007, 03:40:02 AM » |
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a quickie...
How long can larvae live outside the hive, without incubator and stuff, at room temperature.
are the eggs any less sensitive to changes?
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Michael Bush
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« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2007, 09:54:35 PM » |
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I have never seen them raise queens from eggs in cell cups. They just remove them. You need just hatched larvae that is swimming in royal jelly.
I don't know what the outside limit on larvae is, but I haul them into the house to graft and it takes me 30 or 45 minutes to get it done and put them back out and most are accepted.
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